Not stacking in stockpile

[Morkai_Corvus]

I can't figure out why my villagers refuse to stack some items in the stockpile. I have 10 spots of limestone with 1-10 in each and 3 stacks of hay with 20-80 in each of those.

[chaotix14]

Overlapping hauling tasks mostly. When multiple villagers pick up tasks to haul limestone they reserve a pile (making it unavailable for other villagers to grab as an adjacent pile to fill their inventory), and then only one of them can haul it to any specific stack at the same time. So if you have a lot of small piles a decent distance away you can get this situation. where 10 villagers each grab a tiny amount of limestone and haul it to a sepperate spot in the stockpile.
Of course then after it is put in storage the stacks don't get combined, because there's no re-organising or combining of stacks in stockpiles coded (yet).

So it's two problems of which only one is visible in the result, namely the small piles. The other problem is argueably worse, 10 villages hauling very small stacks because all the other nearby piles they could grab are already reserved.

[Morkai_Corvus]

Originally posted by chaotix14:

Overlapping hauling tasks mostly. When multiple villagers pick up tasks to haul limestone they reserve a pile (making it unavailable for other villagers to grab as an adjacent pile to fill their inventory), and then only one of them can haul it to any specific stack at the same time. So if you have a lot of small piles a decent distance away you can get this situation. where 10 villagers each grab a tiny amount of limestone and haul it to a sepperate spot in the stockpile.
Of course then after it is put in storage the stacks don't get combined, because there's no re-organising or combining of stacks in stockpiles coded (yet).

So it's two problems of which only one is visible in the result, namely the small piles. The other problem is argueably worse, 10 villages hauling very small stacks because all the other nearby piles they could grab are already reserved.

Thank you for the detailed explanation!

So, if I am understanding correctly, I could potentially solve this by making two stockpiles side by side. Then removing the allowance for say limestone from the one with multiple piles and allowing it in the other one?

or would they just move to 10 new spots in the other location?

I also understand this would be a gigantic waste of time for my villagers to do this, just curiosity at this point. I am a bit ocd about clean looking areas lol.

[chaotix14]

The best way to clean this mess up and keep it somewhat clean is to have a giant low priority stockpile (preferably one for non-decomposing things, one for stuff that needs a roof and a floor, and the cold storage), and a sepperate small stockpile with a higher priority for each of the specific resources you want decluttered.
This way even if there's 10 villagers hauling those 1-10 pieces of limestone to your stockpile at the same time, eventually it'll all be hauled to the higher priority limestone specific stockpile (as long as there is space in that stockpile), combined with not over-mining that should keep the stockpile clean of the random small piles.

The other option which I'd recommend for things that don't decompose (or things you're easily going to get waaaay too much off like hay, flax seeds, sticks, etc), just have them allowed on a small specific stockpile and no access to the large stockpile. For a bit of added cleanliness add a small lower priority stockpile next to your mining operation, that way it's not randomly strewn around out there either.